Materials used for botanical disinfection products are mainly substances having antimicrobial activities of organic compounds contained in secondary metabolites, such as terpenoids, alkaloids and phenolic compounds. Such compounds are secondary metabolites produced through self adjustment and self protection during long-term evolution under adaptive environment. It is generically recognized that such compounds can be used for disinfection and sterilization. Compared with conventional chemical synthetic disinfectants, the compounds especially have the advantages that various compounds contained in the botanical disinfectant can act on pathogenic microorganisms in a multi-target manner, and drug resistance is not liable to cause as compared with conventional chemical synthetic disinfectants; the compounds are completely biodegradable and are environmentally-friendly and safe; botanical materials are renewable resources, and completely meet the sustainable development requirements of human beings; the selected botanical sterilization materials can have strong target selectivity and are safe and harmless to non-target organisms; and botanical sterilization and disinfection products are generally mild in effect and less in irritability, and almost have no toxicity and side effect within dosage.
At present, domestic research and development on botanical antibacterial materials are generally concentrated on antibacterial and bacteriostatic actions, and particularly many research achievements in the respects of the antibacterial and bacteriostatic actions are achieved. However, no research that actually achieves the disinfection effect is obtained. Antibacterial & bacteriostatic actions and disinfection are two different concepts. Disinfection is a normative concept with specific connotation and refers to killing or removing pathogenic microorganisms from propagation media to the extent of harmlessness. The disinfection efficacy of the disinfection products needs to be certified through inspection of Technical Standard for Disinfection (2002). Although fruitful research results are achieved on botanical antibacterial materials in the field of pesticides application, research achievements are not in the same application field as sterilization and disinfection products for humans.
In general, three research and development ways exist for conventional botanical disinfection products for sterilization and disinfection: finished products made by using plant (or Chinese herbal medicine) crude extracts as the raw material; finished products made by using plant refine extracts, namely plant essential oil as the raw materials; and finished products made by using single plant extracts as the raw material. The botanical antibacterial materials having certain disinfection efficacy have provided some preliminary achievements. A precedent of a composition compounding Chinese herbal medicine crude extracts is used as an example: Chinese patent document (CN101861883A) discloses a botanical disinfectant and a preparation method thereof, the botanical disinfectant comprising the following raw materials in percentage by weight: 1-10% of fructus forsythiae, 5-20% of honeysuckles, 25-45% of licorice roots, 5-15% of rhizoma coptidis, 5-15% of cortex phellodendri, 1-10% of radix et rhizoma rhei, 1-10% of safflowers, 1-10% of cloves, 1-10% of radix paeoniae rubra and 1-10% of fineleaf schizonepeta herbs, and crushed materials are soaked in baijiu for 5-10 days. Such kind of composition is characterized in that the content of ethanol is nearly 50%, and is expressed as 49% or below (50% ethanol already has the ability of killing bacteria); and as shown in test reports, fetal bovine serum used in interferents is only 0.3%, indicating that the compound can only be used for secondary disinfection even in compliance with relevant regulations in the Technical Standards for Disinfection, having little significance in practical use. A precedent of a composition compounding essential oils as a disinfectant is used as an example: Chinese patent document (CN102239893A) discloses a bactericidal disinfectant made of plant essential oils, which is prepared from the following raw materials in percentage by weight: 0.3% of eucalyptus oil, 0.4% of tea tree oil, 0.3% of armoise oil, 0.5% of rosemary oil, 0.5% of bergamot oil, 0.5% of lemon oil, 0.7% of lavender oil, 0.2% of clove oil, 0.4% of thyme oil and the balance of a diluent. In the composition disclosed by the invention, essential oil accounts for 3.8% and the balance is the diluent. The ethanol is usually used as a diluent of essential oils, and such a high proportion of ethanol makes the composition insignificant in practical promotion. In addition, Chinese patent document (CN103749563A) discloses a composition disinfectant of plant essential oils, which comprises the following components in percentage by weight: 1% of peppermint oil, 0.5% of bay essential oil, 1.5% of eucalyptus essential oil, 1% of tangerine peel essential oil, 1% of juglandiphyllum essential oil, 3% of citric acid and the balanced of ethanol. The same as the previous example, the ethanol content of the compound is up to 90% or above. Due to high ethanol content of the two patent application compositions, it is impossible to determine the disinfection effect of essential oil components.
The botanical disinfectants described in the patent applications have the following characteristics:                1. the preparation technology is simple and rough, for example, only essential oils and ethanol are used;        2. a substantial amount of organic diluents is used, so that the making cost is high, and practical use value does not exist;        3. the products are not effective in functions, the problem that the functions of main functional materials in the compounds are even not clear, exists, and obvious defects existing in the technology; and        4. the property advantages of botanical disinfection products fail cannot be shown due to heavy use of diluents (ethanol).        